ACROSS RUSSIA TO ORENBURG 33 
for a whole day at a time. But the bulk of the snow 
removed, the sledging is perfect ; the handsome black 
horses trot briskly along the streets, their bells jingling, 
and the sledge gliding easily over the surface. During 
spring and autumn the climate is very variable ; and when 
the thaw sets in the streets become veritable swamps. 
The distance between St. Petersburg and Orenburg is 
1400 miles, and between Orenburg and Tashkend 1300 
miles, so that I now had before me a drive nearly as 
long as the four days’ railway journey. Thirteen hundred 
miles in a tarantass, in the month of November, across 
steppes and wastes, over roads probably as hard as 
paving-stones, or else a slough of mud, or impassable 
from snow ! 
I did not look forward to the prospect of driving a 
distance farther than from Stockholm to Rome, or than 
from Berlin to Algiers; but I had already (1890-91) 
made the railway journey to Samarkand, and wished to 
take this opportunity of seeing the boundless Kirghiz 
steppes and the Kirghiz Kara-kum Desert (the Black 
Sand), in order to compare it with the desert of the 
same name in the Transcaspian Region. 
It is possible, for those who prefer it, to travel by the 
post. But this means a change of conveyance at every 
station ; and as there are ninety-six stations, the incon- 
venience and waste of time caused by the repeated 
unstrapping and re-arranging of one’s luggage may easily 
be imagined. It is better to buy your own tarantass at 
the beginning of the journey, stow away your baggage 
once for all, stuff the bottom of the conveyance with 
hay, and make it as comfortable and soft as possible with 
cushions and furs — a tarantass has neither springs nor 
seats — and only change horses at the stations. 
Before starting, a stock of necessary articles, notably 
provisions, has to be laid in, for as a rule nothing eatable 
is to be obtained at the stations. On payment of fifteen 
kopeks ( kopek = j«^.) the traveller may demand the use 
of a samovar, and sometimes a piece of black bread may 
be bought. In addition to provisions, you should always 
